Improve customer experience with the Engineer Profile Portal

The Engineer Profile Portal has been available for a few weeks, as part of our Real-Time Vehicle Tracking feature, however, we haven't so far given it the attention it deserves. Today I want to drill down on the engineer profile portal and explain the two different versions available - and why your customers will love this feature.

Engineer profile portal - with trackingIf you use our real-time vehicle tracking feature, then you can use the engineer profile portal in conjunction with your vehicle trackers, allowing your customer to see where the engineer is.

Please bear in mind that this feature is only available on our Paperless Office planand above. If you're not on this plan, book a meetingor call the team on 0203 0266 266 about upgrading today.

Engineer profile portal - with vehicle tracking

The engineer profile portal is part of Commusoft's SMS offering. You may already be using SMS within Commusoft, particularly the 'engineer SMS', which is sent to customers when the engineer is on their way and travelling to the property. This is a great tool to assure the customer that you are coming to carry out the work and to let them know they will soon need to grant access to the property. (If you don't have SMS capabilities set up, please call support to get started).

The engineer profile portal is an extension of this feature,offering an 'Uber-style' portal for your customers. You can opt to include a portal link within the SMS message, providing a clickable link for the customer.

When the customer opens this link they are taken to the engineer's profile. The profile displays the engineer's picture, so the customer can know exactly who to expect and to look out for, plus any credentials such as Gas Safe ID, OFTEC, NICEIC, etc. This provides the customer with a professional service and offers reassurance as to who is going be completing the work.

In this example, the Commusoft user has implemented vehicle tracking (learn all about that here), so the customer will also be able to see the engineer's live location on a map, as well as the route and estimated time of arrival.

We believe this is a really exciting feature, that a lot of customers will love. Consumers are increasingly expecting a sleek customer experience and regularly track things such as deliveries, takeaways, and taxis - so why not field service appointments too?

By providing a responsive ETA, that will adjust if the engineer is stuck in traffic or takes a wrong turn, the customer will know exactly when to expect you. This allows them to tidy up or make the service area safe, return to the property, or just get dressed (we've all been there!). This can help reduce no-access situations, which saves precious time wasted travelling back-and-forth to a job.

When the engineer updates the job status by tapping "Arrive" or if they were to abort the job, the engineer tracking portal will update accordingly. Once the engineer arrives or aborts the job, their location will no longer be shared with the customer - and the customer will instead only see the new status. See the examples below.

Standalone engineer profile portal - without tracking

We understand that some of you may not plan to use our Real-Time Vehicle Tracking feature or haven't implemented it yet - if that's the case, you can still use a basic version of the engineer profile portal. As there is no vehicle tracker connected, the map location and ETA features are disabled.

However, you can still include the engineer's profile - their name, photo, credentials, and the job description for the customer to see. Whilst this feature won't let the customer know exactly when the engineer will arrive, it will let them know exactly who is on their way and offers a professional touch.

How do I set this up?

Remember, this feature is only available if you use SMS within Commusoft - to start using SMS, please contact support.

1. Update the SMS template

First, go to System Settings and navigate to the Mobile Settingssection and select 'Job mobile engineer SMS'. If you already use this feature, you should have already set this message up. Now, to insert the link to the engineer profile portal, click on the 'Use Tagging' button and add the tag:

[engineer_profile_portal_url]

This link will now appear within your automated SMS when the engineer travels to the job. We suggest you explain what the link is by saying "View the engineer profile below" or "Track the engineer with the link below" or something similar, so that the customer understands where the link will lead. Make sure you click save and the portal will now be working.

3. Ensure up-to-date engineer profiles

If you have not already, you will need to make sure that your engineer profiles are set up with suitable (and professional) photos, as well as the correct full name and any credentials such as Gas Safe ID. To do this go to Company Settings> Users, from here you can click 'View' for each user and update any of that information. (Video guide).

4. Communication preferences

If you are already successfully using SMS with your customers, then you may already know this and have it set up correctly. However, to ensure that the customer receives the SMS when the engineer taps 'travel', the customer will need to have the right communication preferences set.

To view this go to your customer list and click a customer. Next, click the 'Contacts' tab and then edit the contact that will receive the text message. Here you will need to ensure that in the 'Communication preferences', the SMS box is ticked (you won't be able to choose SMS if the contact does not have a phone number in the database).

Having issues?

We hope you (and your customers) enjoy this new feature! If you cannot see the settings pages for this portal, remember it is only available on the Paperless Office plan and higher. Please also make sure that you have tried clearing your browser's cache to see if that resolves the issue. If you are still having trouble, please contact support@commusoft.co.uk for assistance.

One more thing!

Watch our recent webinar on our vehicle tracking feature to see the engineer profile portal in action and learn how you can implement vehicle tracking in your business.